Weekend Data Dump

Dave Barry's 2018 year in review is hilarious as usual.

It is ironic that the most fervent fans of President Trump call those who oppose even some of his policies (or just his language and tone) "Republicans in Name Only." Mind you, some of those Republicans are as unhinged as the Resistance. But simple disagreement is allowed. My basic worry about Trump (and none of my worries include him being a Russian puppet, a secret Nazi, or a tyrant) has been that his conversion to conservatism and the Republican Party is skin deep. He is the real RINO when push comes to shove. Which is why I've wanted the Republican-controlled Congress to send conservative measure to the president's desk for signature. Trump wants victories and he'd sign what he gets. The House failed to do that while it could and in 2019 Nancy Pelosi will have the gavel. And Trump will sign what Pelosi can get sent to the Oval Office. We rely on the Senate to stand its ground. If Trump reverts to his long history of being a liberal Democrat, curse the 2017-2018 Republican House leadership for not taking advantage of the rare opportunity complete Republican control of Congress gave them. Their failure to take advantage of the lame duck session--which is the norm--is especially frustrating. I remain grateful that Trump defeated the thoroughly corrupt and inept Clinton. That gratitude may be tougher to cling to the next two years. I hope not.

Venezuela's navy crossed into Guyana's territorial water to intercept an oil exploration vessel. The vessel retreated east to avoid the Venezuelan "navy" (number of ships not stated). Venezuela has long claimed the sea area. In 1899 Venezuela accepted an international tribunal's decision in favor of Guyana but Venezuela later recanted that agreement.

Huh.

The Iranians said they didn't view the presence of an American carrier in the Persian Gulf as a threat. Well, yeah. In the Gulf the carrier is an asset for operations against any enemy but Iran--in this case Afghanistan. In the Gulf the carrier is just conveniently dangled near Iranian assets that could attack it or trap it in the Gulf by closing the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians said they wouldn't allow the carrier to enter their territorial waters. I should hope that is the last thing we'd use a carrier for! If America wants to threaten Iran our big ships will leave the Gulf and operate in the Arabian Sea.

A tour of Iraq. Sunni terrorists and Iran (and their local fanboys) remain threats.

Who can "check" Trump on war once Mattis is gone? Seriously? How about treaties, the Constitution, laws, Congress, public opinion, and every other factor that "checks" every other president? Good God, people, get a freaking grip. And quoting Hagel of all people is insane.

Russian electronic warfare capabilities, which were used in Iran to down our RQ-170 drone back in 2011. Reset! Of course, we and our allies are taking advantage of the ability to confront Russian EW capabilities in Syria and Ukraine's Donbas region to learn how to cope better.

Well, yes. Just as explosives from World War II continue to routinely plague countries and just as explosives from our Civil War continue to turn up.

Online, nobody knows if your followers are dogs.  Why do we go along with the idea that the inbred and self-referring social media world reflects our country?

CRS report to Congress on Iran.

Taiwan is choosing to pursue sales of the F-16V rather than the F-35. Personally, I wouldn't sell the F-35 to Taiwan because I don't think they spend enough on defense to give me assurances that China couldn't simply capture intact F-35s after a successful invasion. And that's on top of the Chinese espionage strength in Taiwan that the article mentions.

Perhaps this just exposes my lack of knowledge about the international soybean trade, but why is it a problem for America that China now imports zero soybeans from America? Isn't China simply buying from other soybean exporting countries and won't the customers of those other soybean exporting countries simply buy from America now? Isn't this just a one-time cost of rearranging international trade flows in soybeans?

I have never ever assumed America's military can't be beaten. And if you do you are making a dangerous mistake. Really, the Welfare-Bureaucrat Complex long ago defeated the Military-Industrial Complex.

Chest thumping and flinging hypersonic poo. Russia may never see one of those in their arsenal even if the test was successful, I suspect. Increasingly Russia looks like Iran with their fantasy weapons displays.

Ukraine ended their eastern martial law declaration after 30 days. I'm not sure what the point was. Just a test in case Russia escalates or Ukraine wants to?  Or was it all for election purposes? "And" is always an option.

North Korea is willing to supply African rulers, among others, with the brutally effective security forces they need. Decades (?) ago, North Korea trained a Zimbabwe army brigade that developed a reputation for brutality even in that awful state. People die to provide North Korea with hard currencies with little outrage. And yet the world condemns "blood diamonds."

Yes, so this time we should not leave Iraq too soon and allow the jihadi problem to rebuild.

I've gone on about how silly I think the hype about Russian "hybrid" warfare is (here's one random find in my genre). Let's contrast a long military presence by America and one by Russia. For America, it is a "quagmire" that we can't escape. For America it is a sign of America's inability to win. For Russia it is a "frozen" conflict that brilliantly allows Russia to influence events without committing resources to win decisively.  Why is there such a divergent view of the two? I've had thoughts on this before.

Just in time for stories to be printed that Trump visited no troops on Christmas, he and the First Lady visited troops in Iraq.

I heard a Democratic Congressman quote Reagan's "tear down this wall" Berlin Wall statement in support of his position against having a wall on portions of the Mexico border. Truly, he can't possibly be so stupid as to not recognize the difference between a wall meant to keep subjects in and one to keep illegal aliens out. Also, a wall is technology. It reduces the need for manpower to protect the border. That's what obstacles do. There is a lot of dishonestly in opposition to border barriers, including walls where it makes sense.

Basically, the Washington Post is confirming that Khashoggi was a player in the Saudi version of Game of Thrones, including ties to Saudi foes Qatar and Turkey. It is a long article whose length obscures this aspect of Khashoggi. This does not justify the murder but it has never been a case of a murder of a mere journalist.

Thailand's rulers are killing democracy. The military is too political to be effective, it seems to me.

Efforts to lighten the load of our infantry always fail. I fear that exo-skeletons will just convince the Army to add even more weight. And when the exo-skeleton breaks? Oh well!

More on the Manus island base that will be available in the Pacific. I mentioned this Papua New Guinea base and the joint effort by Australia and America to improve it in an earlier data dump. This is a welcome addition to our efforts to increase the depth of our military bases in the face of increasing range of Chinese missiles and aircraft to strike our bases in the western Pacific.

India is beginning to adapt to the fact that China's major improvement of logistics infrastructure in Tibet makes India's northeast vulnerable to Chinese attack. But India has stumbled in this problem, too, so I'm not sure how doctrine without sufficient forces and infrastructure will work. The article also notes that India is increasingly measuring its military capacity including nuclear) in relation to China rather than Pakistan. Which is a problem given that Pakistan will continue to measure their power against India, which needs to measure their power against the more powerful China rather than against the far weaker Pakistan.

Both the overtly pro-Iranian Shia party in Iraq's parliament and Moqtada al Sadr's bloc protested the visit of Trump to Iraq as a violation of their "sovereignty" despite the government's statement that America provided advanced notice. Iran hates our presence as an obstacle to turning Iraq into a closer version of vassal state Syria. And Sadr, of course, is a thug and three-time insurrectionist whose survival we will live to rue. Whether or not Sadr is still pro-Iran, he is anti-American and his efforts will benefit Iran.

This author pushes back against the effort by Remainers to induce panic over the effects of a no-deal Brexit. Good. And I want to know why, as I've wondered many times before, the European Union is apparently eager to punish Britain by denying Britain trade with the EU with as much enthusiasm as the EU seeks to help mullah-run, nuke-seeking, and destabilizing Iran maintain trade with the EU. In the end, it may be that the EU fears the first crack in their wall just as the USSR suffered from Hungary's opening of the Berlin Wall that sparked the collapse of the Warsaw Pact dominoes that eventually reached into the USSR itself. The EU desperately wants its own Brezhnev Doctrine, but thus far it is based on increasingly binding cheese regulations rather than tanks and secret police.

If Russian election meddling online is so effective and pervasive, why would Democrats fake Russian Twitter bots for an election?

Major League Baseball has contracted with the Cuban communist dictatorship for slave baseball players. Tip to Instapundit. Next up? North Korean slave stadium concessions workers.

Strategypage looks at Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Yemen. Iran and Syria are in rough shape. And there is a good point that the Syrian Kurds were leveraging America's presence for their goal of independence--which we don't support for reasons of the UN and our allies, even if we wouldn't mind Syria and Iran suffering from this result. And will Iran's mullahs provoke a civil war in Iraq before one breaks out in Iran?

Chum in the water.

The Navy wants icebreakers to carry out freedom of navigation operations in the Arctic Sea.

Yes, the Navy got used to bombing enemies on the land who couldn't shoot back during the post-Cold War world. Now it needs to restore weapons, numbers, and training to fight for control of the seas.

Italy denies being a directly ruled province of the European Union. How cute. The rest of Europe should take note.

Will you to guys settle the ef down?

Children should be seen and not heard. World prosperity is up with poverty down, there is enough food to prevent starvation (and obesity is the worry now), the world is reforesting with lower pollution levels than decades ago, actual fascists and their communist cousins were defeated, Western-style democracy dominates the world so much so that even thug autocrats pretend to have democracy, and you have wonderful things like smart phones and cheap computers connected via the Internet--wirelessly! All done by the older generations--one of whom that young person will call on her smart phone to change the tire on her vehicle when it goes flat and she can't change it with her angry activism. God save us from the young idiots whose historical knowledge approximates zero. We'll see if her vow to not buy new things lasts past her computer breaking or getting obsolete. Tip to the PJ Media live blog. I thank God my own youthful ignorance wasn't broadcast to the world to be forever archived.

The Army is introducing a new physical fitness test that requires a lot of time, space, and equipment to administer. Is it really appropriate? My view is that it is a sincere effort to test physical abilities that will be needed in combat. But the vast majority of soldiers do not need that physical skill set. The old Army PT test should be retained with the new test given to infantry or any other combat arms soldiers deemed to need those physical skills. Give it to special forces operators, too, but I imagine they are motivated enough without the more demanding test. Too many REMFs (and I say that as a proud former REMF) will fail the test if rolled out as planned. The Army will allow deployed units to use the traditional test until after they return. But that just solves the time, equipment, and space issues.

“'Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty,' Merkel said" recently. She was talking about European Union member states and the Brussels headquarters. And you wonder why I call the EU a "proto-imperial" project? Some of its members are eager to remove the "proto" part. Are all the EU states willing to go along for the ride to imperial subject province?

I'm surprised that the Houthi gave up control of Hodeida port. The Yemen government's navy and coast guard took control, supervised by UN personnel. Although the Houthi have managed to put their people in the navy and coast guard at the port. It would have been better if the Saudi coalition had captured the port. Did the Houthi agree to this deal because they knew they'd lose and the UN is a better shield than their fighters? Besides, since the Saudi coalition has to pull back as part of the truce, if the Houthi break the truce first they can fill that space and improve their defenses. We'll see if food can get to people in danger of starving more effectively than ballistic missile components can get to the rebels in order to fire at Saudi cities and bases. Oh, but the UN says they doubt the claim of the Houthi and want confirmation from somebody else. Um, shouldn't the UN be able to confirm it given their supervision role? Also, the Houthi aren't cooperating on humanitarian aid. Also, the "coast guard" is basically just Houthis. I imagine the "navy" there is the same. So my level of surprise has dropped to zero.

Their mental health issues shouldn't be a problem for the rest of us. The time of judgment is not here and the end is not nigh.

Fahrenheit 404. Because you can't burn code.

Britain might build bases in the Caribbean and Far East after Brexit. This sounds like a "trade follows the flag" policy to encourage trade with Commonwealth countries if the European Union continues to punish Britain for leaving the EU.

Boko Haram was able to mass enough fighters to stage a serious attack on a Nigerian base at Baga that houses a brigade headquarters plus the Multi-National Joint Task Force. It is unclear if the jihadis captured the base. This is what happens when you take your foot off the throat of a defeated and scattered but fanatical jihadi enemy.

The Germans reopened Hamburg airport after grabbing a man who drove a car onto the apron area of the airport and tried to pursue a plane that had landed, saying "no dangerous objects were found."  If I may be so bold to say this, when dealing with a thin-skinned airplane that a car driving at high speed is a dangerous object. Nothing to see. move along.

If the Russians build it and if it even works, what's the point of a Russian hyper-sonic nuclear weapon when they have enough nukes to overwhelm our limited missile defenses? It's more of a threat to our aircraft carriers.

Yahoo news reprinted a silly article on how Russia's campaign in the Sea of Azov against Ukraine is "hybrid warfare. So let me again note my utter contempt for that notion.

So ... Maduro is going to stick with the assumption that he had nothing to do with the thwarted assassination  attempt on Colombia's President Duque?